earl
Pluralearls
- 1A British or Irish nobleman ranking just above a viscount and below a marquess, equivalent to a European count; a woman who bears the title is a countess.
The earl inherited the castle and its lands when his father died.
Her grandfather was made an earl for his services to the Crown.
Note
The title is a native English one, from Old English eorl, and jarl is the same word come back through Norse; despite the likeness of sound, it has nothing to do with alderman. The woman's title borrows from the continent instead: she is a countess, the feminine of the European count that the earl matches in rank.
- 2Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia, whose other members are called counts and viscounts.
We photographed an earl sunning itself on a leaf at the edge of the rainforest trail.
The museum drawer held several earls pinned beside their close relatives, the counts and viscounts.
Note
The name is borrowed from the peerage: the group is christened after the nobleman and his fellow peers, so a list of its species reads like a table of precedence. Brush-footed is the family's everyday name: the front legs are shrunken and never used for walking, so the insect seems to stand on four.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English erl, erle, from Old English eorl, which goes back through Proto-West Germanic *erl to Proto-Germanic *erlaz (compare Old Saxon erl, Old Norse jarl), from Proto-Germanic *erōną, *arōną (compare Old Norse jara, “fight, battle”). It is a doublet of eorl and jarl, and is unrelated to ealdorman (“alderman”).